Elephant Spotting In Wayanad

Our journey to Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary a remote jungle in north Kerala where you're almost guaranteed to see wild elephants took a little longer than expected. First we needed a train from Alleppey to Kozhikode, as always the timetable was prone to changes and we were in for a two hour wait at the station. The eclectic mix of young and old crossing platforms via the tracks rather than the footbridge kept us 'entertained' and showed us health and safety at its best.

Alleppey - The Venice Of East

We decided to head south from Kochi to enjoy a much raved about Keralan Houseboat in Alleppey 'The Venice Of The East'. The journey there was amusing, a 2.5 hour taxi ride with an eclectic soundtrack: 90 minutes of Aqua on repeat (remember THIS?), 30 minutes of Backstreet Boys and Blue, followed by some Bob Marley reggae vibes for the home straight. At the halfway point we thought it was going to be Aqua all the way - no matter how many times we heard it, we just didn't want to party with Barbie, or hanky panky with Ken!

Locals canoeing through the tourist houseboats in Alleppey.

Our Arrival In India: Fort Cochin & Cherai Beach

Two flights, a taxi ride and 13 hours later we arrived safely at Cherai Beach Resort, on Vypeen Island. It's a very narrow island, to the front of our resort is a golden sandy beach and the back sits right on the river aka backwaters.  Our home for three days was a traditional Keralan style fisherman's hut set amongst tropical landscaped gardens and lagoons. A relaxing, picturesque setting to begin our Indian adventure…

Not bad for our first stop.